Did you know that HIV screening is also done in pharmacies using a simple and quick device?

When it comes to the fight against HIV, too many people are still falling through the cracks of testing. So, the territorial professional health community of the French Riviera embarked on an experiment: anonymous and free tests to detect the HIV virus in just a few minutes.

Eradicate AIDS by 2030, a national objective. Participating in this objective is a fierce desire of the Alpes-Maritimes department and more precisely of the very dynamic professional territorial health community of the French Riviera, which is at the heart of this unprecedented system.

4 million French people pass through the doors of a pharmacy every day. Based on this observation, the question follows, what if this was the ideal place to test for HIV?

Thus, in the Menton sector, 6 pharmacists decided to participate in the “Pharma TROD HIV” experiment (Editor’s note: rapid diagnostic orientation test) by offering rapid, free tests without a prescription. Health Insurance in fact provides financing.

If self-tests have existed since 2015, they wanted patients not to be left alone with the result without knowing who to contact if necessary and without information on treatments.

> All measures to facilitate STI screening

What is crucial is the reliability of the tests that have been chosen. The idea of ​​doing it in a pharmacy is also to take the opportunity to talk about sexual health in general, not just HIV, but all STDs.

Cyril Colombani, pharmacist-Vice-president of the Professional Community Territorial Health of the French Riviera

at France 3 Côte d’Azur.

To do this, simply fill out a form. No need to mention your first and last name since the test is completely anonymous.

Then, the process is very simple, as Cyril Colombani, pharmacist-Vice-president of the Professional Community, explains to us. tterritorial of Health of the French Riviera: “All you have to do is collect a few drops of blood using a microneedle which will automatically enter and exit the tip of your finger. The blood collected is then brought into contact with a reagent which determines the presence or absence of HIV. “

The blood collected is immediately put into contact with a reagent which determines the presence or absence of HIV.

Of course, some pharmacy customers will come voluntarily to be screened in this way, but pharmacists especially want to reach those who do not think about the danger, as Cyril Colombani tells us: “We will be able to analyze by discussing with patients what the risk situations are. A person who comes to pick up a morning-after pill for example. In fact, everything is an opportunity to be able to exchange and discuss with patients. And this link that what we create is an additional door that we can open to screening.

As soon as a test is positive, we can enter the person into a care protocol and treat them.

“People tend to think a little too much that it is a disease that is behind us. It could be if the population tested themselves a lot more. So, as soon as a test is positive, we can bring the person back in a treatment protocol and treat it. This would really help to reduce this disease, at least in our countries. The HIV test, carried out in a pharmacy, will be reliable for a risk taken more than three months (12 weeks) ago.

After falling by 40% in 10 years, the number of contaminations remains stable, or has even increased slightly since 2020. Around a hundred per year in the Alpes-Maritimes, a department historically affected by HIV.

However, early detection makes it possible to stop transmission and have a normal life, as Doctor Pascal Pugliese, head of the Regional HIV Coordination Paca Est-Member of the National AIDS Council, explains to us: “Patients are treated practically within fifteen days following diagnosis with very simple and very well tolerated treatments. These treatments will make the virus undetectable in the body and which will have a very direct individual benefit, the person will no longer progress in the disease. Other advantages, studies have shown that a person who has an undetectable viral load no longer transmits the virus to their partners. This is the major lever for breaking the chains of transmission and thus obtaining the figure of zero transmission. from here to 2030.”

In the interest of efficiency, volunteer pharmacists undergo training to know how to break bad news and how to deal with it.“If the test is positive, with the patient’s agreement, we will be able to give them an appointment, a few days later, to follow them for the implementation of the treatment and support them” as Cyril Colombani tells us.

This test is the major lever to break the transmission chains and thus obtain the figure of zero transmission by 2030.

Pascal Pugliese, head of the PACA East Regional HIV Coordination, Member of the National AIDS Council

FTV

The benefits for public health of this uniquely maralpine experiment could be essential. And, if it is conclusive, the experimentation of HIV tests in pharmacies could be extended throughout France by the end of 2025.

Since 2012, the Alpes-Maritimes department has been a pioneer in experimenting with PrEP. In 2019, it was again in this department that the HIV laboratory TEST system was launched for the first time, allowing free screening without a prescription.

Hanbury Pharmacy – Garavan district; The Menton pharmacy – Town Hall sector, old town; Riviera Pharmacy; Sansom Colombani Pharmacy; Pharmacie Roquebrune Cap Martin – Carnoles sector and the Pharmacie Trois Gtrois in Cap d’Ail.